The Boise Regional Realtors (BRR) recently released the real estate market report for October 2020. This report covers housing market updates from October 2019 to October 2020 for Ada, Canyon, Elmore, and Gem Counties. This blog will focus on the Ada and Canyon County reports. Monday’s blog will focus on the Gem and Elmore County reports.

The BRR Ada County report matches what we have been reporting since the summer. Inventory is down 73.7%, which has created a seller’s market of high home prices and fast sales as people are moving to the Boise area. The median sales price is up to $406,684, an increase of an almost-unheard-of 14.7%. Homes spend an average of 20 days on market, with many selling in under a week. Overall, 1,112 homes sold between October 2019 and October 2020, which is 11.9% more than October 2018 to October 2019.

One point of clarification: Why are home sales up if home inventory is down? The BRR explains it this way:
“It’s important to note that the inventory metric fluctuates daily and is based on the number of homes listed as “active” in IMLS on any particular day. For consistency purposes, our reports use the number of single–family homes available for sale on the last day of each month, so it does not represent the total number of homes that may have been available for sale throughout the month; however, the closed sales metric reflects all homes sold during the month….Adding to that, once a seller accepts an offer, the home is no longer considered available inventory. With homes spending an average of only 20 days on the market before going under contract, some may not make it into the reported inventory numbers.”

It all comes down to the buying frenzy of what few homes are available. Since Boise is such a desirable place to live, people want to move quickly, and sellers are more than willing to oblige them. In addition, a large number of buyers are closing deals for new construction builds which will not be completed until some time in 2021. We will keep an eye on how this affects market reports next year.

What we can say now are two things:

• If you want to buy a home in Boise, start looking today. When you find a house that is perfect for you, call a Build Idaho agent and make an offer as fast as possible.
• If you want to sell your home, realize the large home value increase, and upgrade your living situation, start by finding out how much your home is worth with our free home value calculator.

The BRR Canyon County report tells a similar story compared to 2019.

Median sales price: $323,450 (24.4%)

Days on market: 19 (-62%)

Homes sold: 530 (+17%)

Inventory: 191 (-78.2%)